Improving speed & stamina

[Sparta VAG]

After years of not cycling, I dug out my old, heavy hybrid bike out to start cycling to work a couple of months ago. I'm in fairly decent shape but struggled to manage to average 7mph on my ride to work (7 miles).

I educated myself a bit and ditched my old bike and picked up an old Falcon racer from E-bay for £50. I popped some 23mm tyres on and after 8 weeks or so I'm now averaging 14-15 mph on a commute.

I'm really enjoying cycling and would be interested in joining a club but the requirements for the ones near me are a bit daunting. They reckon I'd need to average a minimum of 14mph over 75-100 miles to come along on some of their rides.

Physically I'm not yet at the stage where I have the stamina to hit that speed for that amount of time.

What can the PH cycling gurus suggest in terms of a plan to build up the stamina/strength needed to improve my average speed?

[anonymous-user]

simple things really, get the miles in, nothing beats that. then look at hills and try to find a few routes of varying gradient to test yourself (sign up to www.strava.com which is very good for this, it pushes you against others in a virtual race and is a good basic training aid to log hours, rides etc), then try to incorporate some flat out sprints into your rides, only say 100m every 1km out it will help build up stamina and get your heart pumping and your lungs working hard.

....and a new bike always helps!....

[Jimbo.]

Improve speed: ride harder.
Improve stamina: ride longer.

Just ride as much as you can and don't be afraid to utterly bury yourself every now and then. To paraphrase Lance "Did he, didn't he?" Armstong, a little bit of pain never killed anyone. The improvements will come.

Oh, and find another club: one that welcome's the new and not-so-fast. Everyone has to start somewhere. Even the fast guys

[Comfortably Dumb]

Jimbo. said:

Oh, and find another club: one that welcome's the new and not-so-fast. Everyone has to start somewhere. Even the fast guys

Or just a few guys to ride with. Going out with other riders has helped me no end as you push each other on. It's also a lot easier to hold a fast pace as a group.

[Gizmoish]

Rule 10: it never gets easier, you just get faster.

As above, you'll get faster by pushing yourself.

On my commute there are a couple of places where I absolutely kill it for a minute or so, give it everything in the tank.

[Sparta VAG]

Have signed up to Strava, am not as bad as I thought I was

That said, some of the performances on the roads near me are unreal.

[racerbob]

Sparta VAG said:

Have signed up to Strava, am not as bad as I thought I was

That said, some of the performances on the roads near me are unreal.

Just keep riding as often as you can, don't try to rush things too much, look into getting your position on the bike right for you, learn to pedal efficiantly, by that I mean keeping a good cadence of say 85-95 rpm, use your gears, ask questions with more experienced riders. You'll be doing impressive things in 6 months time, stay with it.

[Gazzab]

I ride a mtb.I race myself using my garmin bike computer and iPhone app. That helps a lot as I can look at each section and beat myself up over each element not just the totals.
I sit on a bike in the gym for 30 mins once a week and again I race myself. I found that the gym work gave me greater confidence ie that my limits were higher than I thought. For some reason I found it easier to test myself for that extra 5% in the gym where I guess there was less fear of ruining a ride cos I peaked too early..

[anonymous-user]

Sparta VAG said:

Have signed up to Strava, am not as bad as I thought I was

That said, some of the performances on the roads near me are unreal.

i am very dubious of some strava times, i would assume that some are drafting others. I wouldnt put it past some people of dubious moral integrity to take the car for a gentle drive too either such is the prestige that some attach to a KOM...

or maybe i am still too slow and bitter!

[ChrisMCoupe]

Glad to see I'm not the only Strava cynic Some of the times on hilly segments near me are just unreal. Averaging 35kph+ up hills is either a herculean effort or just plain bullst. As I get quicker maybe I'll be proved wrong though.

As for speed, I currently do 3 or 4 spin classes a week for the last year or so and really push myself hard on some high resistance. I've found that I can really transfer that extra power built up to the road.

[hurstg01]

Gazzab said:

I ride a mtb.I race myself using my garmin bike computer. That helps a lot as I can look at each section and beat myself up over each element not just the totals.

Took a bit of editorial license with your reply, but now it matches what I do. MTB with draggy offroad tyres [Maxxis Ardent on the back, Conti-something on the front] and hit the roads. It took me ~35 mins to do the 6.26 miles to work and the same back albeit on a slightly alternate route with a big hill in the way [up and down ]. Now, after 6 months and losing 3 stone my record is 20mins 40 secs. If the offroad tyres were to come off and road tyres put on their place, I think that would be under 20 minutes

[Gazzab]

hurstg01 said:

Gazzab said:

I ride a mtb.I race myself using my garmin bike computer. That helps a lot as I can look at each section and beat myself up over each element not just the totals.

Took a bit of editorial license with your reply, but now it matches what I do. MTB with draggy offroad tyres [Maxxis Ardent on the back, Conti-something on the front] and hit the roads. It took me ~35 mins to do the 6.26 miles to work and the same back albeit on a slightly alternate route with a big hill in the way [up and down ]. Now, after 6 months and losing 3 stone my record is 20mins 40 secs. If the offroad tyres were to come off and road tyres put on their place, I think that would be under 20 minutes

Has your rear tyre got any tread these days ;-)